5th Circuit
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.15.18
* A white substance sent to Stanford Law School turned out to be harmless, but the school remains concerned based an accompanying threat. [Stanford University News]
* This prolonged malaise in the legal sector? Yeah, that’s not normal. [Law.com]
* Fifth Circuit agrees that the bail system employed in the Houston area is unconstitutional. But, you know, didn’t go so far as to actually release anybody. [Courthouse News Service]
* Selendy & Gay opens for business today after striking out on their own from Quinn Emanuel. [American Lawyer]
* Playboy’s suit against Boing Boing — which sounds funnier than it is — was dismissed for failing to state a copyright claim. Playboy had sued Boing Boing for reporting on a website that contained copyrighted material in a certainly felt like a wild overreach. [EFF]
* Partner’s son admits to embezzling $827K from firm. Whenever one of these office manager embezzling stories comes up I’m always left wondering how people manage to miss the first $826,999.
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Courts
The Latest And Greatest In President Trump's Judicial Nominations (Part 1)
Here's a rundown of where things stand, including district as well as circuit courts. - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Government
Trump Just Opened Up ANOTHER Seat On The Fifth Circuit
Problem: the administration doesn't have enough ambassadors. Solution: start sending federal judges and nominating their replacements.
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Federal Judges
A Surprising Turn In The Fifth Circuit Sweepstakes (Plus Seven Other Federal Judicial Nominees)
Congratulations to the two Texas nominees, including a celebrity tweeter! -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.20.17
* Hogan Lovells shows the love to its support staff — as long as they head for the exits — by offering voluntary retirement to 400 employees. [Legal Week]
* Another jailhouse pal of Sigfredo Garcia, one of the defendants in the Dan Markel murder case, claims that Garcia acknowledged participating in the killing. [Tallahassee Democrat]
* The Texas-sized drama over those open Fifth Circuit seats shows no signs of being resolved anytime soon. [BuzzFeed via How Appealing]
* One of outgoing dean Daniel Rodriguez’s biggest achievements at Northwestern Law: bringing down average student indebtedness by roughly a third. [Law.com]
* The gold that Donald Trump is showering upon his lawyers in the Russia probe reportedly comes from donations to his re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee. [Reuters via ABA Journal]
* Speaking of the Russia inquiry, can White House counsel Don McGahn claim attorney-client privilege to withhold information from special counsel Robert Mueller? [Reuters via How Appealing]
* Unintended consequences: the high cost of Biglaw associates is driving entry-level hiring of in-house lawyers. [Am Law Daily]
* What’s behind the trend of women leaving Biglaw to start their own boutiques? [Big Law Business]
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Immigration, Justice
Injunction Stops Texas 'Show Me Your Papers' Law: 'Cause It's Unconstitutional, Not Just Post-Harvey Cruel
The Constitution continues to stop the racists, but for how long? -
Federal Judges, Politics
Circuit Court Nominees In The Trump Administration: The Latest News And Rumor (Part 1)
What are the chances of these folks getting confirmed? -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 06.30.17
Ed. note: Early wishes for a happy July 4th weekend! We’ll be back on Wednesday, July 5 (barring unforeseen news).
* I don’t know that free speech is under cultural attack, as this post argues. But I do think people are using lawsuits to bash speech they don’t like. Instead of lecturing people about the sacred right of Nazis to intimidate people on Twitter, I’d rather the First Amendment crowd came up with a real regime of sanctions for people who bring lawsuits against clearly protected speech. I just don’t know that the Deplorable fanboys would recognize that as a sufficient way to fight for their freedom to talk out of their asses. [Popehat]
* The Fifth Circuit has now conferred qualified immunity on expert witnesses, deployed to spout whatever nonsense the government thinks will help them gain a conviction. The Democrat who runs on a criminal justice reform platform that included changing the rules around qualified immunity would probably get my vote. Instead they’ll probably run a Goldman executive with an innovative plan to retrain bigoted hill people for the hi-tech jobs of the future. [Simple Justice]
* What Trump is actually trying to do with his voter fraud investigation is horrifying. But Professor Rick Hasen says it won’t work, and I’m going to trust him because I do not want to get pissed off about a whole new thing this close to a long weekend. [Slate]
* Texas isn’t sure that same-sex marriage means that same-sex couples get marriage benefits. Sigh. Look, Texas is going to lose its fight against gay people, eventually. YOU HEAR THAT YOU HAT WEARIN’ COWBOYS? Gay people are going to kick your ass and have sex in your Alamo. [Texas Tribune]
* Based on the settlement data, The Root came up with a methodology to calculate the worth of a black life. Ballpark, the state pays about $3,364,875 per family for the right to kill us without criminal accountability. If you’ve got thoughts about how the state spends too much money in settlements, keep them to yourself. [The Root]
* Stay safe out there this long weekend. The Texas Law Hawk has some fireworks safety tips. [Texas Law Hawk]
* Checking in with the Alt-Right, I could go with all the stories about how people have called Kellyanne Conway “ugly,” which is apparently the Alt-Right defense for the president mocking Mika Brzezinski? But this headline is just too good: “Germany Surrenders to Trump, Waters Down G20 Climate Plan #Winning” They’re making water puns, y’all. They are defiant. You can’t even blame the Earth for trying to kill all of us. [Breitbart]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.23.17
* Federal investigators are delving into multimillion-dollar deals involving former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his son-in-law, Jeffrey Yohai. [New York Times]
* The Fifth Circuit lifts the injunction against H.B. 1523, Mississippi’s notorious “religious freedom” law that many regard as antigay (but the court ruled on jurisdictional rather than gay-hating grounds). [Texas Lawyer]
* In the wake of a mistrial in the criminal case against him, Bill Cosby plans to educate young men on how to avoid accusations of sexual assault. (My advice: don’t commit sexual assault.) [New York Times]
* The Fourth Circuit affirms almost all the convictions of ex-CIA officer in a leak case — a potentially significant ruling if the Trump administration follows through on its threats to prosecute leakers. [How Appealing]
* The Seventh Circuit declines to reinstate the conviction of Brendan Dassey, the defendant made famous by Making A Murderer. [ABA Journal]
* Martin Shkreli, aka “Pharma Bro,” is gearing up for trial — and, for the record, he is “so innocent.” [New York Times]
* More disturbing news from my ancestral homeland of the Philippines, involving accusations that the police are shaking down families in distress as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs.” [Washington Post]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 06.14.17
* Time to nerd out! We’ll start with Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) firing a shot across on the bow on blue slips. [Politico via How Appealing]
* Speaking of judicial nominees, Professor Stephanos Bibas, nominated to the Third Circuit, has a long, long paper trail — including not just lots of law review articles, but letters to the editor from when he was a college kid. [CA3blog]
* Who knew that singer John Legend was a legal nerd? He’s all about “the challenge and the opportunity of federalism,” as Chris Geidner reports. [BuzzFeed News]
* It’s time for the courts to recognize that the Lemon test “is really and truly dead,” according to Daniel Blomberg of Becket. [Bench Memos / National Review]
* Meanwhile, Professor Orin Kerr identifies “an interesting question worth flagging for the Fourth Amendment nerds” out there. [Washington Post]
* Finally, Fifth Circuit guru David Coale has found something even wonkier than the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. [600 Camp]
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Federal Judges, Judicial Nominations, Social Media, State Judges
Was A Possible Judicial Nominee Told To Curb His Twitter Use By... The Trump Administration, Of All People?
Not exactly -- but other authorities have asked him about the subject. -
Litigators, Practice Pointers
6 Tips For Appellate Advocacy (Especially If You're Appellant's Counsel)
Advice from an appellate judge and a seasoned advocate on how to put your best foot forward on appeal. -
Federal Judges, Legal Ethics
Fifth Circuit To Lawyer: Answer The Damn Question
Who was right in this contempt of court charge?
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Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
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Federal Judges, Politics
Circuit Court Nominees In The Trump Administration: A Nationwide Round-Up
Names, names, and more names, for federal judgeships around the country. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 04.19.17
* An interesting look at the life and career of Gloria Allred — who has litigated groundbreaking civil rights cases as well as TMZ fodder. [Coverage Opinions]
* Lawyer Jose Baez intends to investigate the death of his client Aaron Hernandez, who was found dead in his prison cell after apparently hanging himself. [Deadspin]
* Footnote of the day (gavel bang: Raffi Melkonian aka @RMFifth Circuit). [Twitter]
* Professor Jonathan Adler still has doubts about the Emoluments Clause lawsuit against President Trump (although it’s much stronger now, thanks to some additional plaintiffs). [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]
* Professor Glenn Reynolds has some doubts about diversity (although I suspect he strongly supports intellectual diversity). [Instapundit]
* Professor Ann Althouse has her doubts about… Democrats (even though she has voted for more Democrats than Republicans over the years). [Althouse]
* And Professor Eugene Volokh has his doubts about the constitutionality of this order. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]
* In honor of national haiku poetry day, here are some verses from Dean Dan Rodriguez of Northwestern Law. [PrawfsBlawg]
* Congrats to the ACLU of Massachusetts, the national ACLU, the state public defender’s office, and Fick & Marx LLP on a huge and historic win! [ACLU]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 07.22.16
* Are law firms being exploited by their clients to launder money? [Wall Street Journal]
* Richard McLaren is the law professor who laid the ground work for Russia potentially being banned from the Rio Olympics over a doping scandal. [New York Times]
* An analysis of the legal issues in the new Ghostbusters movie. [The Legal Geeks]
* Review of Anxious Lawyer (affiliate link), a new book by AtL columnist Jeena Cho and Karen Gifford. [Legal Ink Magazine]
* What does Rick Hasen think will happen in Texas now that the 5th Circuit has struck down its voter ID law? [KUT]
* Matthew Dowd and Robert Kulik, the lawyers turned children’s book authors we previously profiled, went on TV to discuss their work. [ABC News]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 07.21.16
* The Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, rules that Texas’s voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act by having discriminatory effects on minority voters (but remands on the issue of discriminatory purpose). [How Appealing]
* It appears that yes, Roger Ailes is on his way out at Fox News — thanks in part to the work of lawyers from Paul, Weiss. [New York Times]
* Matt and Melissa Graves, the parents whose two-year-old son was killed by an alligator at Disney’s Grand Floridian resort, will not be suing Disney. [Washington Post]
* Congratulations to exoneree Jarrett Adams, who served nearly eight years in prison for a crime he did not commit, on his admission to the New York bar. [ABA Journal]
* Republican VP nominee Mike Pence is a lawyer, and his Democratic counterpart probably will be as well: shortlisters Tim Kaine, Thomas Perez, and Tom Vilsack are all lawyers, and James Stavridis is a law dean. [New York Times]
* A California man gets convicted in a plot to kill two prosecutors, two FBI agents, and federal judge Andrew Guilford — with a wood chipper. [Los Angeles Times via ABA Journal]
* A New York appeals court affirms a ruling in favor of Boies Schiller in a malpractice suit brought by fashion model Mary Anne Fletcher. [Big Law Business]
* A bit more about former Attorney General Eric Holder’s work for Airbnb (a development we noted yesterday). [American Lawyer]
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Public Interest
Is Sharper Scrutiny Of Qualified Immunity On The Horizon?
Even conservative jurists are starting to question police tactics. -
Clarence Thomas, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
'The White Man's Burden': A Frank And Funny Interview With Justice Clarence Thomas
Justice Clarence Thomas opened up in a candid, wide-ranging interview with Chief Judge Carl Stewart of the Fifth Circuit. -
5th Circuit, Conferences / Symposia, Litigators
Bryan Garner's 3 Neglected Keys To Effective Advocacy
The noted legal writing expert offers insights for litigators who have already mastered the basics.